Bringing the crack since December 2003

Cinema Purgatorio #8 - "And the Blackness Moved"

"I think that anthologies and especially black and white ones are probably vital if we wish to retain – or, God forbid, improve upon – the basic values and standards upon which this entire art-form, let alone this entire industry, are founded. The anthology title is of tremendous value, simply because it will contain a number of strips that vary in length from a half-page to perhaps six or eight pages. The importance of this necessary limitation, to fledgling comic writers and to the writing standards of the field as a whole, cannot be overestimated. For one thing, anthology titles were once the near-universal proving ground for new writers entering the industry, based on the sound commercial logic that if you give somebody a trial shot at writing a four page story and the results are less than riveting then it will be no great disaster and no great loss. And of course someone who has learned their craft through the vehicle of the short story (where you have to establish the characters, world, premise and structure before resolving all of these satisfyingly in a handful of pages) will certainly possess all of the skills and discipline necessary to scale up their narrative into a tautly-written 24-page book, or an ongoing series, or a ‘graphic novel’ as the occasion demands. The same is not true the other way about, however, and writers who have entered the field via a monthly book with a potentially endless continuing story seem to find the short form unimaginably difficult and restrictive. For a lot of comic book writers it seems like the idea of resolving a storyline ever is an anathema, let alone resolving it within eight pages or less. Simply put, while mastering the short anthology story is certainly harder work for the creator, the rewards to the individual concerned and to the field as a whole are immeasurable." -- Alan Moore

People are complex, and we have to recognize that. I grappled a lot with Moore's more questionable statements because I so admired the rest of who he was and what he did.

I do think that while the sentiment is admirable, its focus is pretty narrow. There are plenty of markets for four-page stories-- for many young creators, that's a Tumblr or Imgur post. You might call that not a real "market" because it doesn't pay, but then we get into freemium models and other facts of life for the young cartoonist, facts about which Moore doesn't seem to have thought much.

Acting as a spokesperson for comics is admittedly a pretty thankless and doomed job. No matter how impressive your resume, you're always going to experience only some of the vast universe of experiences it offers. But some of us think we're qualified anyway, and that's when we run into problems.

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